vni.] EVAPORATION CURRENTS 135 



strong alternating induction currents through the eggshell 

 (plugging out the galvanometer meanwhile), and then again 

 pass yi^ volt through the eggshell and galvanometer. The 

 deflection is now 20 degrees of scale, i.e., the conductivity, by 

 reason of water transport from electrodes to shell, has been 

 increased more than fortyfold. 



A propulsion of water, through capillary pores, by an 

 electrical current,- might conceivably outlast its original cause. 

 And since a capillary current can give rise to an electrical 

 current in its own direction, it is conceivable that a homodrome 

 after-current might be thus brought about. I have at various 

 times made a good many trials of this point, with porous septa 

 of various kinds between saline solutions of various strengths, 

 without ever observing anything at all comparable with an 

 unequivocal blaze-current of a living object. Here is an 

 ordinary dialysing tube containing a strong solution of zinc 

 sulphate, and surrounded by a weaker solution ; two amalga- 

 mated zinc rods dipping in the fluid on each side of the septum, 

 serve as electrodes ; the dialysing cell, compensator, induction 

 coil and galvanometer are connected to the keyboard in the 

 usual way. Notice, in the first place, the normal current from 

 less concentrated to more concentrated solution in the dialysing 

 cell, i.e., " with " the water current, and from more to less through 

 the galvanometer. And now, with this concentration current 

 compensated, I send a strong break shock through the dialyser 

 first from B to A, when you see a polarisation deflection from A 

 to B ; then from A to B, when you see a polarisation deflection 

 from B to A. And I do not stop to inquire whether these 

 polarisation counter-currents are at the electrodes or at the 

 interface of the two solutions ; for they are antidrome effects, 

 and we are now looking for homodrome effects. 



So we find that although no doubt water transport through 

 pores occurs in living as well as in dead matter, and contributes 

 no doubt to augmented conductivity caused by electrical currents, 

 it cannot be made responsible for the currents now familiar to 

 us as blaze-currents ; the sine qua non of these currents, what- 

 ever their chemico-physical mechanism may ultimately prove to 

 be, is the living state. 



